What's Ahead in 2004

Overall revenues for distributors are forecast to rise 5.6 percent. Distributors selling into industrial and construction markets are forecast to see revenue growth of about 5 percent in 2004.

With the end of 2003 rapidly approaching the time to start planning is upon us. In this article we provide a 2004 forecast for wholesale distribution industry, a snapshot of next year's construction and contracting markets, and a detailed overview of the industrial market based on our new report for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) titled NAW Economic Forecast 2004 (www.nawpubs.org).